The Irish border blog often has interesting snippets and none more so than this timely reminder (HERE), as Davis, Hammond and now Theresa May begin to grapple with the issue of getting a trade deal that also covers financial services. Trade negotiators have become very astute and as we know they have written clauses into several existing EU trade deals that if any future FTA is negotiated with better terms, existing countries must also benefit in the same way.
The blog says this:
The Canada deal excludes most services and specifically financial services. However, according to a British academic interviewed on BBC Radio 4, it does contain a clause that if any other country is offered better market access on a deal of that type, Canada must get the same access. In fact, a number of EU trade agreements have the same clause. The point is that if the UK were to be offered a Canada-style deal with no commitment to the Four Freedoms or ECJ jurisdiction, plus any access to the EU financial services market, other countries could automatically claim the same access.
One can easily see the problem here. Granting the UK a trade deal with financial services access would create a huge headache for the EU and this isn't just a matter of protocol or fairness or courtesy, it is written into formal international agreements and will seriously limit what the EU can offer - even if it wanted to.
In fact, they are in an envious position. France, Germany, Ireland and others want a slice of London's lucrative financial services business. However, it would not look good if they appeared awkward or self-serving in preventing UK access to the internal market. But they can point to CETA and other FTAs and say they are sorry but it is these agreements that is preventing London having access. Therefore, institutions will have to make the move into the EU. This will happen step by step.
